Kettle-shaped canteen by IIT-B students

Imagine having tea in a building shaped like a giant kettle. It may sound like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, but the students of IIT-Bombay in Powai are working to make it come true.

As part of an international competition, these students are building a 12-feet kettle-shaped structure which could be used for rain water harvesting as well as a canteen by the students. The building will be made entirely out of rubber tires and glass bottles, and it will even have a spout.

Being built by 15 civil engineering students, the structure is being created using rubber tires and glass bottles and other construction waste like fly ash and leftover rocks. Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the building will be slanted to the left, giving an illusion of a kettle pouring water in a cup.

This project is part of ‘Tower of Babylon’, a global competition where students have to build an iconic and sustainable object for their campus using local materials. Valentine Forgose, a fifth year student, who is leading the team, said, “We wanted to create something that appealed to the Indian ethos, a kettle and cup symbolises the country’s darling beverage, tea.”

Not only is the building shaped like a kettle, but it can also whistle. The air passing through glass bottles, used in constructing upper half of the building, makes a whistling sound when it is windy. “The building will whistle just like a kettle on the burner,” said Koli.

The building will be surrounded by five feet tall giant cups, one of which will be placed underneath the spout so that it collects the water dripping from the spout. “The water will help sustain our campus when there are water cuts,” said Forgose.

The competition is launched by the Global Alliance of Technical Universities, where five teams from architecture universities in Singapore, China, the USA, India and Switzerland are competing against each other.